YPSILANTI - Eastern Michigan University's student chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has once again earned a Superior Merit Award from the national organization for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Eastern's chapter was also awarded a special Outstanding Student Chapter Award and designated as one of the top 10 chapters in the country. The SHRM's program has over 450 affiliated student chapters with more than 15,000 student members.

To qualify for the Superior Merit and Top Ten designations, a student group must accumulate points in categories that include professional operation of the chapter, professional development for members and support for the HR profession. Also partnering with local professional chapters such as Detroit SHRM, and the Greater Ann Arbor chapter of SHRM are important activities taken into consideration.

Fraya Wagner-Marsh, head of EMU's management department in the College of Business and lecturer Toni Knechtges are co-advisors for the group.

"A chapter of our size has to complete 50 or more activities to receive a Superior Merit Award," said Wagner-Marsh. "The Top Ten award is given to Superior Merit Chapters that submit an outstanding project and our project was our recruiting efforts."

Some of the activities and programs developed by the group include:

Hosted eight guest speaker meetings with local HR professionals.

Coordinated four workshops on topics such as Behavior-Based Interviewing, HR's Role in Driving Change, Working for Multiple Managers and Managing the Declining Performer.

Coordinated a job-shadowing event on Ground Hog Day where 10 EMU students spent the day at various HR offices.

Organized a mentoring program where an HR professional from one of the local sponsoring SHRM chapters will mentor EMU students for a year.

The chapter also participated in several community projects including collecting children's books for Gift of Reading, collecting clothes for Dress for Success and walking in the Making Strides for Breast Cancer event.

Members volunteered at the EMU College of Business Career Day and participated in several new student orientation activities on campus.

The group produced a recruiting video and conducted presentations about HR careers to various business classes.

"I am extremely proud of the officers and members of the EMU student chapter of SHRM for winning both the Superior Merit and the Top Ten awards," said Wagner-Marsh. "Our chapter has won the Superior Merit award for the past 19 years and has won the Top Ten Award 11 times since the award was created in 2000. This record is impressive and an indication of the hard work and dedication of the EMU students."

The Top Ten Outstanding Student Awards were announced at the national SHRM conference in Chicago, June 15, where the EMU chapter received a plaque for the Top Ten award.

The EMU chapter was chartered in 1995 and currently has 113 student members. For more information, go to the EMU student chapter of SHRM.